A Greater Manchester care home that failed to treat its residents with ‘dignity and respect’ was found to be in breach of nine safety regulations after a Care Quality Commission inspection.

Breaches by Brocklehurst Nursing Home, on Withington's Cavendish Road, which included ‘care not always being provided with the relevant consent’, were discovered after two inspections carried out last summer.

The CQC advised that the local authority should step in to protect patients, after the care home was rated inadequate, with the subsequent report making grim reading for families of those housed at Brocklehurst.

Furthermore, the report found that the home had failed to notify them of allegations of suspected abuse including omissions of care and potential neglect, which they instead received directly from the local authority.

The report said: “We found that the people who lived in Brocklehurst were not treated with dignity and respect.

“Staff acted without due care and diligence about people’s feelings. Staff appeared too busy to be concerned about the things that would separate basic care from good care.”

“The home had not safeguarded people who lived there against potential acts of abuse due to lack of effective systems to prevent and recognise abuse.

“The CQC raised six safeguarding alerts to be investigated by the local authority to ensure people were safe and protected.”

One of the safeguarding issues which were referred to the local authority was the concern that people were not getting the required amount of hydration.

One person at the home had not even received the right support for managing a head wound, whilst inspectors saw two people whose mouths were dry and lips cracked, showing a poor quality of care.

One of the most shocking aspects of the report is details regarding the lack of support patients at the home were receiving, leading to one person falling numerous times.

It read: “We saw one person had fallen over three times in one month. We found this person was not referred to the falls team and there records were not consistent.

“In one it was clear they had fallen three times, in the other there was only one record.

"We found and people told us that people’s personal hygiene needs were not being met in a timely manner."

During the inspection, the CQC spoke to 16 members of staff, including the recently appointed manager and deputy, administrator, nursing staff and carers.

The inspection team also spoke to 15 people who lived at the home and four visitors.

Another concern came from speaking to staff, inspectors found they had not received the ongoing training and support required to ensure their competence in specific clinical roles.

The home was found in breach of Regulation 12, as when inspectors looked over three files they spotted high risk scores on nutritional screening tools.

The report finished by describing the overall appearance of the home as being clean and tidy and in a good state of repair.

They state that the reviews of the home by those who lived there as being mixed.

The overall rating for the home is ‘inadequate’ which means the service is now in special measures.

This means that the home will now be kept under review with another inspection due to take place in six months.

If there has been no improvement within this timeframe, the report states that the CQC will take action in line with their enforcement procedures to prevent the provider operating the service.

For adult social care services the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months.

MM attempted to contact Brocklehurst Nursing Home for comment, but they had declined at the time of publication.

Image courtesy of Google Maps, with thanks

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